EXIM Bank offers $548.6 mn loan to Air India

{image-EXIM Bank_22092008.jpg news.oneindia.in}New Delhi, Sep 22: US-based Export-Import Bank has extended a 548.6 million dollar loan guarantee to Air India for purchase of Boeing aircraft.

''We greatly value Ex-im Bank's contribution in partnering with Air India in our project to acquire 68 state-of-the-art aircraft from the Boeing Company,'' National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL) Chairman and Managing Director Raghu Menon said in a statement. Meanwhile, India has also taken advantage of the Cape Town Treaty, which is an international treaty facilitating the cross-border financing and leasing of aircraft, helicopters and aircraft engines. Ex-Im Bank reduces its exposure fee by one-third on asset-backed financings of new US-manufactured large commercial aircraft and spare engines for international buyers located in countries that ratify and implement the treaty. The Bank's exposure fee is the risk premium that the Bank charges for its export financing.

As a result of ratifying and implementing the Cape Town Treaty, NACIL saved over five million dollars on financing costs. The Ex-Im Bank, the official export-credit agency of the United States, concluded a 1.2 billion dollars financing of Boeing aircraft for NACIL in 2007. The Ex-Im Bank's aggregate exposure under the 2007 financing and the current financing is about 1.6 billion dollars.

UNI